Sun research librarian Paul McCardell writes about photographer and foreign war correspondent Holbrook Bradley, who was embedded with the 29th Infantry Division during World War II. Bradley followed the 29th Division from its training days and across Europe until Germany’s surrender. Here’s a look at some of Bradley’s photographs from 1943-1945.More

On June 6, 1944 the United States along with the other allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France. It was the beginning of a battle that would eventually turn the tide of World War II against Nazi Germany. This year marks the 70th anniversary of that landmark action during which thousands of soldiers lost their lives in defense of freedom.

Normandy Veterans gathered at Bayeux War Cemetery in France, for a remembrance and wreath laying ceremony to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Across Normandy several hundred of the surviving veterans of the Normandy campaign assembled to commemorate the D-Day landings which eventually led to the Allied liberation of France in 1944. Next year, which will mark the 70th anniversary of the landings, is widely expected to be the last time that the veterans will gather in any great number.More

Not many know the story behind the iconic photo of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower speaking with a group of U.S. paratroopers on the eve of the D-Day invasion. Former Sun librarian Susan S. Waters told reporter Frederick N. Rasmussen details of the encounter for a story published in The Sun in 1999. Wallace C. Strobel, the young paratrooper with the blackened face and jumpmaster’s No. 23 standing in front of Eisenhower in the photo, was in fact, Waters’ father. So what did Ike say to the soldiers? The obvious guess would be that Eisenhower was rallying the paratroopers with words of victory, a great crusade and defeating the Nazis, but as Rasmussen wrote, it was actually fishing that was the topic of conversation.More